CHAPTER XXXIII

TWENTY-NINTH INFANTRY

ORGANIZED AT COUNCIL BLUFFS—MARCH TO ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI—ST. LOUIS— COLUMBUS, KENTUCKY — PROCEED TO HELENA, ARKANSAS — ACCOMPANY THE WHITE RIVER EXPEDITION—THE YAZOO PASS EXPEDITION--THE BATTLE OF HELENA—MARCH TO LITTLE ROCK—CAMDEN EXPEDTION—THE BATTLE OF TERRE NOIR--RETREAT—"CITY GUARDS "—MOBILE CAMPAIGN—MOVE TO TEXAS—HOMEWARD BOUND.

 

THAT part of Iowa which in common parlance is called "the Missouri Slope," furnished the fighting material of the Twenty-ninth Infantry. It was organized in the latter part of 1862, under the auspices of Thomas H. Benton, Jr., who was appointed colonel August 10^th, long known throughout the State as a politician, more especially as an efficient friend of popular education, he had none of those dashing, flashing qualities which were so universally regarded during the earlier period of the war as the essentials of a successful soldier. He had no difficulty, however, in speedily raising a full regiment of ten companies, which were all mustered into the service, by the 1st of December, at Council Bluffs. R. P. Patterson, adjutant of the Fifth Iowa, was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and C. B. Shoemaker, major. Joseph Lyman, a non-commissioned officer of the Fourth Calvary, was chosen adjutant, and W. W. Wilson, quartermaster. Doctor W. S. Grimes, assistant surgeon, Fourth Iowa, was appointed surgeon. Reverend John M. Conrad received the appointment of chaplain.¹

It had been intended that this regiment should form a part of the command under General W. T. Sherman, which made the fruitless assault upon Vicksburg in December of this year. But before the regiment had formally entered the service of the United States, navigation of the Missouri River was closed, and this design had to be abandoned. Proceeding by detachments between the 5th and 9th of December, the command marched to St. Joseph, Missouri, and reported to Major-General Samuel R. Curtis, then commanding the department. From here it went by rail to St. Louis, and entered Benton Barracks on the 20th, with over nine hundred men, every one in good health and spirits. The next morning it marched to Schofield Barracks in the city and was assigned the duty of guarding certain prisons.

It had hardly entered upon the performance of this service, however, when it was ordered to repair to Helena, Arkansas. Accordingly, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, the Colonel remaining at St. Louis on regimental business, it embarked for the South on Christmas day. Like all other regiments about that time passing down the river, it paid the tribute of a halt to Columbus, Kentucky, then daily frightened by imaginary butternut Forrests. It was assigned to the right wing, under command of Brigadier-General J. M. Tuttle, where it remained in camp till the 8th of’ January, 1863. On that anniversary it embarked, under orders to proceed to Helena, with the brigade of General Fisk.

The brigade did not disembark at Helena, but at once joined an expedition which had been organized by General Gorman, and which was now ready to proceed up White River. This expedition was entirely fruitless, and more than entirely comfortless. It went up the river a distance of one. hundred and eighty miles to Duvall’s Bluff, and then returned without ids-embarking the troops. No resistance from the enemy was met, but the sufferings of the men were intense. During the voyage, which has been described in the previous chapter, measles attacked the Twenty-ninth. When it reached Helena on the 26th, there were more than four hundred men on the sick list, and the command lost by the exposure of this voyage not less than three hundred. But after recovery from this shock, the health of the regiment was almost uniformly good.

It formed a part of that wonderful expedition through the Yazoo Pass to Fort Pemberton at the head of the Yazoo River. It left Helena on board the Steamer "Emma No. 2," but when that vessel reached the Cold Water, it was found to be so broken and smashed up by the poundings of the navigation through forests, as to be little better than a wreck. The regiment was transferred to the "Key West," aboard of which it made, the voyage to the fort and. back to Helena. From this time until the Little Rock Expedition, the command remained at Helena on garrison duty, only leaving the town to participate in the ordinary scouts. It bore a glorious part in the Battle of Helena, on the national anniversary, whipping an entire brigade, and capturing many prisoners.²

The march of General Steele’s Army from Helena to Little Rock took place between the 11th of August and 10th of September. The weather was excessively hot and dry. The White River was crossed at Clarendon, where a week’s halt was made. From this place the column marched up the river as far as Duvall’s Bluffs, at the crossing of the Memphis and Little Rook Railroad, where depots of supplies and hospitals were established. The Twenty-ninth was in the division commanded by General Samuel A. Rice, the brigade being under the command of Colonel Benton. Nothing worthy of note occurred until after the column left Duvall’s Bluffs. From there to Brownsville, the country is a grand prairie, and at this season of the year entirely without water. Each man carried his own supply in his canteen. It was so hot that many were sun-struck on the march. There were not enough ambulances to carry those who gave out, so that they would load up, travel ahead, leave the sick by the road-side, and return for others. By repeating this operation, the men unable to walk were by turn conveyed in the ambulances and left to suffer in the broiling sun through the greater part of two days. The column halted a few days at Brownsville, but during that time General Rice’s Division made a rapid march to Bayou Metoe, eighteen miles distant, to cover a movement of General Davidson’s Cavalry Division in another direction. Both detachments, having skirmished sharply with the enemy, soon returned to the main army. General Price, commanding at Little Rock, occupied a strong position four miles from the rebel capital, his right protected by the Arkansas, his left by an impenetrable cypress swamp. The roads leading to this position from the front pursued devious courses, and were in many places narrow causeways over bayous and through swamps. General Steele, therefore, turned from the direct road and struck the Arkansas about eight miles below Little Rock. Here a pontoon bridge was thrown across the river, and early on the morning of September 10th, Davidson’s whole Cavalry Division with its artillery passed over and moved rapidly along the sandy shore and through the woods against the enemy. General Steele moved up on the north side of the stream, his artillery all the time assisting his left wing, on the south side, against which alone the enemy made any serious demonstrations. Davidson was resisted with less or more obstinacy all the way to the town, and the right wing marched in light fighting order, momentarily expecting to have a general engagement. The cavalry entered Little Rock at dark, Price having retreated in such haste as to leave the arsenal and much public property unharmed. His army was superior in numbers to that from which he fled. The Union army encamped around the city on the morning of the 11th, leaving the rebels to retreat quietly to Arkadelphia.

In November, the rebel General Marmaduke attacked Pine Bluff, some sixty miles below Little Rock, and was repulsed with heavy losses. General Rice was sent out with the brigade to which the Twenty-ninth belonged, and a brigade of the Second Division to intercept the rebel trooper; The command marched as far as Rockport, on the Washita, but did not find Marmaduke. This ended the active campaigning of the regiment for the year. It remained at Little Rock during the winter of 1863-4, and till General Steele’s column moved for the southwest on the morning of March 23d.

In this campaign of hard marches through mud, and swamp and bayou; of heavy skirmishing day after day and night after night—skirmishing which more than once became severe enough to make it a battle to those engaged; of burdensome labor in building causeways and bridges; of stubborn fighting, of stupendous losses in material, of short rations much of the time, and no rations at all many days, the Twenty-ninth Iowa bore laborious, faithful, honorable part.

The country through which General Steele proposed to himself to march had been marched through by rebel armies, and much of it overrun by the troopers of both armies. There were many square miles of it which did not contain subsistence for a crow. It was necessary that the Union commander should transport his supplies with his column. His train consisted of not less than four hundred wagons. Passing along an ordinary road in the ordinary way it was about four miles in length. April 2d, the column reached the bayou of Terre Noir, on the road from Arkadelphia to Washington.

BATTLE OP TERRE NOIR.

When the main body crossed the bayou, the train was two or three miles behind. Here was an opportunity to pounce upon the supplies by a sudden dash, which it was not to be supposed the rebel cavalry, who had been hovering near the column and watching the train with hawks’ eyes, would let pass by. Shelby’s brigade made a rush for their coveted prey about eleven o’clock in the morning. The Twenty-ninth with a section of artillery constituted the rear-guard for the day. They had met and repulsed this rebel brigade at Helena the year before, and they now fought, unsupported, against fearful odds till the Fiftieth Indiana came up, having marched four miles, to their assistance. This re-enforcement did not arrive a moment too soon. The Twenty-ninth had repelled their assailants three several times, bet were now being roughly handled. The left wing was turned, and being confusedly rolled up along the line. General Rice rushed to the ground, and rallied the troops almost instantaneously, and they immediately charged with a shout, again driving off the enemy in confusion. Shortly afterwards, the rebel Cabell re-enforced Shelby with his brigade of troopers, and another attack was made. Meantime, the Ninth Wisconsin re-enforced the rear-guard, and the rebels were again and again foiled of their object. The conflict continued, at short intervals, from eleven o’clock in the morning still after dark. The train would close up and move on whilst our troops were repelling an attack. Having done that, the march in the fighting order would be resumed, and continued till the next attack. About dusk, the rebels made an impetuous charge, seemingly determined to capture our artillery at all hazards. Our men stood stock still till the galloping horde came within thirty yards of the line, when they let drive from musketry and artillery such a fearful hail of lead and iron, that the charging troopers seemed to have dashed against a wall of rock. Then the Union troops rushed forward with a yell, to which the throats of the Indiana boys added fearfu1 power, and drove the enemy in much admired disorder from the field. This last combat was fought at the junction of the Elkin’s Ferry road, eight miles from where the Twenty-ninth repelled the first assault in the morning. The Union loss during the day was about sixty in killed and wounded, of whom the Twenty-ninth lost twenty-seven. The men who had been engaged marched into Okolona, after nine o’clock at night, with drums beating and. colors flying. Here they saw the train in park, not a wagon missing.

The regiment was under fire for three hours during the battle of Little Missouri, at Elkin’s Ferry, having been ordered to support McLean’s Brigade, sharply engaged, but it did not actively enter into the contest, because it was unnecessary. It was in the front during the day of the 15th, on the evening of which the army entered Camden, having had an excited race with the rebels ever since the magnificent parade on Prairie D’Anne, on the 12th. It remained at Camden till the 26th, retreated with the army upon Little Rock, fought six hours at the severe engagement of Jenkins’ Ferry, making there one of the finest bayonet charges of the war, capturing a section of artillery, and reached the capital on the 3d of May. During this active campaign of six weeks the losses of the regiment in killed, wounded, and missing, were six officers and one hundred and thirty-six enlisted men. Of these, Captain George S. Bacon, of Company C, and fifty-nine men the command were left wounded on the field of Jenkins’ Ferry, and fell into the hands of the enemy. For this there was no excuse, except such as may be found in the haste of General Steele to protect Little Rock from the attack of Fagan, against whom he had already sent a force of cavalry sufficient for the purpose till the main body could come up. But this General seems to have been utterly "stampeded," after the capture of his train and the troops guarding it, at Mark’s Mill, and to have thought thenceforth that if he could throw his army, with body and soul together, again behind the works of Little Rock, he would accomplish a great military achievement. That is precisely what he did accomplish.

After the army reached Little Rock it was reorganized, the Twenty-ninth being assigned to the First Brigade of the First Division. Afterwards, however, it was assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division, in which command it remained to the close of the year. Except during one month, from the latter part of July to the latter part of August, when it was at Lewisburg, on the Arkansas, fifty miles above Little Rock, the regiment remained at the latter place after the retreat from Camden, for nearly a year. In November, it was ordered to move to Pine Bluff, but the order was countermanded, and it was assigned to duty as "City Guard" of the post of Little Rock. And there it remained until February 9th, 1865, when it left for active operations in another field.

Meantime, General J. J. Reynolds had relieved Steele of the command of the Department of Arkansas, and reorganized the army. The Twenty-ninth regiment was assigned to an organization styled the "Detached Brigade of the Seventh Army Corps," General B. A. Carr commanding. About the 1st of February, Carr received orders to proceed to New Orleans. But on account of the want of transportation, the regiment with which we now have to do did not leave Little Rock until the 9th. After a tedious voyage, the regiment reached New Orleans, one wing on the 14th, the other two days afterwards. The united command was quartered in an old foundry, at Algiers, opposite the Crescent City. The 20th, the regiment moved by rail to Lakeport, on Lake Pontchartrain, and there embarked for Mobile Point, Alabama. The vessel unfortunately ran aground, and the command, transferred to another, disembarked on the 23d, and, without tents or baggage, went into bivouac about three miles to the rear of Fort Morgan. The sands of Navy Cove were no luxuries, but the oysters were, and of these luscious fishes the troops had unlimited quantities by simply catching them.

Preparations for the campaign of Mobile at once began. Colonel Benton was attached to the Second Brigade, Colonel H. M. Day, Ninety-first Illinois, Third Division, Brigadier-General W. P. Benton, Thirteenth Corps, Major-General Gordon Granger. The 17th of March the army began the march on Mobile. It was one of the utmost toil and difficulty. But on the 25th, the army found itself under the guns of Spanish Fort, the investment of which was immediately commenced. It need only be stated here that, as in the labors of the severe march the Twenty-ninth Iowa bore its part with unflagging patience, so in the operations directly against the works of Mobile it added to the unsurpassed reputation of Iowa soldiery. It was behind none of its comrade regiments. Its losses in the campaign were twenty-two, one killed, seventeen wounded, one missing in action, and three captured.

April 12th, the regiment entered Mobile, and the next day left the city with the division under orders to proceed to Mount Vernon Arsenal, forty miles above Mobile on the Tombigbee River. A few miles from Mobile, the command encountered a body of rebels with whom a running fight took place, the last in which the regiment engaged, and one of the last combats of the war. Colonel Benton took command of the Arsenal on the 22d, his regiment forming the garrison. The public property had been scattered over the country. He restored much of it, and by great pains and labor again made Mount Vernon Arsenal a thing of beauty. The regiment remained here till the 12th of May, when it returned to Mobile.

Thence, the 1st of June, part of the regiment sailed for Texas, and arrived at Brazos Santiago the 9th, where the rest of the regiment soon joined it. Major-General Sheridan having assumed command of the Military Division, decided that the regiment was entitled to be mustered out under the order of the War Department discharging those troops who had entered the service before October 1,1862. Though the regiment had not formally entered the service till two months after that time, it was the fault of the government in not sending out a mustering officer. So Sheridan sensibly and justly decided. Accordingly the command sailed to New Orleans in the latter part of July, and was there honorably discharged the service the 10th of the following month, and ordered to Davenport, Iowa, for final payment and disbandment.³

The command reached Davenport the 19th, and then numbered seven hundred and sixty-five, officers and enlisted men, but of these only four hundred and fifteen were originally attached to the Twenty-ninth. The others were recruits of the Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-third regiments, who had been assigned to Colonel Benton’s command when those regiments came home. In due time, the Twenty-ninth was resolved into its original elements. The returned soldiers, now citizens, sought their homes in the far west and were everywhere along the journey and at their own hearth-stones met with heartiest welcome.

The Twenty-ninth regiment was unfortunate in being so long kept in the Department of Arkansas, where the military operations were not on the grand scale exhibited on other parts of the theatre of war. But it was one of our best disciplined and bravest regiments. It was first trained by Captain S. D. Nichols, of the Fourth Iowa, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel, long commanding that regiment, and one of the most accomplished of our soldiers. Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson was not surpassed, perhaps, as a skilful commander by any of our field officers. He drilled and disciplined the regiment almost to the degree of perfection. Colonel Benton, already spoken of as not among the dashing soldiers, had a fine influence over his troops. He was brave, just-minded, intelligent. The staff and line officers labored zealously to become accomplished in the profession of arms, and succeeded. And hence the regiment, at Helena, at Terre Noir, at Jenkins’ Ferry, at Mobile—on every occasion when it was called upon to meet the enemy, responded with an alacrity, a degree of soldierly skill, and of courage, which would have given credit to any command of any army the world ever saw.

¹Company A—Pottawattamie county, was commanded by Captain John P. Williams; Lieutenants George A. Hayne, R. R. Kirkpatrick. Company B—Mills county, Captain M. L. Andrews; Lieutenants Lewis K. Deupree, Edward T. Sheldon. Company C—Harrison county, Captain William W. Fuller; Lieutenants George S. Bacon, Joseph H. Smith. Company D—Adams and Adair counties, Captain Frank M. Davis; Lieutenants John W. Stewart, M. E. Black. Company E—Fremont county, Captain Henry Bowen; Lieutenants James L. Mitchell, Daniel G. Elifritz. Company F—Taylor county, Captain James Brooks; Lieutenants Lucius B. Nash, Isaac Damewood. Company G—Ringgold county, Captain Alexander B. Huggins; Lieutenants Andrew Johnston, John McFarland. Company H—Union county, Captain James L Hafer; Lieutenants Lewis K. Myers, Amos C. Cooper. Company I—Guthrie county, Captain Joseph Dyson; Lieutenants Wells C. McCool, Peter H. Lenon. Company K—from all the above named counties, Captain A. K. Wright; Lieutenants Bonaparte Dale, Allen I. Chantry

The assistant surgeons of the regiment were William L. Nicholson and David F. Eakins.

²The regiment lost in this engagement thirty-one killed and wounded. Namely:--Killed, Sergeant Isaac T. Lucas; Privates Edward Harl, John T. Cobb, James Conley, Andrew K. Jordan, Francis I. Husband, Lewis Schwanz. Wounded, Sergeant Hiram Atkinson; Corporals Jacob Bridenstine, Henry Edinger, (mortally); Privates Moses Nixon, Daniel D. Johnson, Ansen F. Beldin, (mortally), P. D. Evans, M. L. Spire, J. W. Rodgers, Emory Jones, (mortally), L. L. Witty, (mortally), R. T. Reeves, (mortally), P. H. Huffman, Leonard Mavity, John Morris, John T. Hindman, John W. Hicks, (mortally), J. W. Smith, W. K. Moler, Isaac Runyon, George W. Smith, John H. Lee, J. W. Trent, John S. Burket.

³ The roster of the regiment, when mustered out, was as follows: Colonel, Thomas H. Benton, Jr., Brevet Brigadier-General; Lieutenant-Colonel, R. F. Patterson; Major, Joseph Lyman; Surgeon, W. L. Nicholson; Assistant Surgeon, J. H. Rice; Quartermaster, C. W. Oden.

Company A—Captain C. V. Gardner; First Lieutenant R. R. Kirkpatrick. Company B—Captain M. L. Andrews; First lieutenant I. M. Warren; Second Lieutenant George A. Davis. Company C— Captain George S. Bacon; First Lieutenant J. W. Stocker. Company D—Captain J. W. Stewart; First Lieutenant D. M. Hedrick. Company E—Captain Hiram Atkinson; First Lieutenant George B. Murray. Company F—Captain L. B. Nash; First Lieutenant J. H. Turner; Second Lieutenant W. F. Evans. Company G—Captain A. Johnston; First Lieutenant John McFarland; Second Lieutenant C. W. Dake. Company H—Captain L. K. Myers; First Lieutenant F. Sommer. Company I— Captain P. H. Lennon; First Lieutenant A. McClaren. Company K—First lieutenant A. J. Chantry; Second Lieutenant J. S. Miller.

From: IOWA AND THE REBELLION, © 1866

Contributed by: Charlotte R. Aten

*Taken from the "History of Adair County, Iowa"

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